| Turin will have six more disciplines than Salt Lake City At the White Olympiad, which starts in exactly ten days in Turin, 84 sets of awards will be awarded. This is six more than at the previous Winter Games in Salt Lake City. New disciplines were added in snowboarding, speed skating and biathlon. Significant changes have occurred in cross-country skiing. There, several types of programs were transformed into others, more spectacular.
Alas, in the history of Russian performance there is still a sad trend - with each Olympics the number of disciplines increases, but this does not bring any dividends to our country. On the contrary, Russia is winning fewer gold medals than at previous Games. Let's try to analyze whether the next expansion of the largest sports forum of the four-year period for representatives of winter sports will benefit us.
Battle of nerves at the shooting range
In biathlon, a race with a mass start has been added. Women run 10 km with four shooting ranges, for men the distance is 2.5 km longer. These races will complete the biathlon program of the Olympics, and no more than 30 athletes are allowed to participate in them, depending on the number of targets at the shooting range. The guaranteed right to compete in the mass start will be given to all winners and prize-winners of previous competitions - individual race, sprint and pursit, as well as the leader of the World Cup. Let us remind you that in biathlon, unlike other winter sports, Olympic competitions count towards the World Cup. The remaining vacancies from the winners will be filled by shooting skiers in accordance with this ranking. So far, all of our leading biathletes are among the top 30, although theoretically during the Olympics the situation could change for the worse.
This season there were two mass starts with the participation of the elite. In the women's competition, Germany's Martina Glagov won both times, and in the men's competition, the Norwegians Ole Einar Bjoerndalen and Halvard Hannewold won. Our Olga Pyleva took second place in Oberhof. In this discipline, it is not so much skiing and shooting training that comes to the fore, but rather the psychological stability of the athlete. Some biathletes cannot cope with their nerves when they shoot at the same time as their main competitors. Last season, Olga Zaitseva won the overall World Cup standings in the mass start, which gives us reason to hope for a medal in Italy.
Stranger Race
If biathlon broadcasts have high ratings on TV channels and it no longer makes sense to explain the mass start rules in detail to the average fan, then the new discipline for speed skaters requires a detailed description. The team pursuit race appeared on the World Cup schedule starting in the fall of 2003. Since we only broadcast the largest competitions - the World and European Championships, and at this level pursit was held only once (at the 2005 Planet Championships in Incel), this type of sport is almost unfamiliar to most sports fans.
Teams consist of three people. The competitors start simultaneously from opposite sides of the 400-meter ice oval. The distance is six laps for women and two more laps for men. In principle, this is an analogue of a bicycle pursuit race, with the only difference being that for track masters, the timing is based on the third of the four participants, and in skating, it is based on the one who crossed the finish line last. The selection for the Olympics took place at the World Cup stages of this season, and both Russian teams received tickets to Turin. True, the regulations for the upcoming starts in Italy will differ significantly from the cup competitions. Previously, the time for completing the distance was simply recorded, and after all the races the teams were classified according to their places. There were cases when an odd number of triples were declared to participate, and someone simply did not have a full-time opponent, which distorted the whole meaning of the pursuit inherent in its name.
Eight teams will compete at the Olympics, the competition between which will take place according to the cup system. Based on the results of the preliminary races, the participants will draw up a grid similar to team sports. Next, starting from the quarterfinals, the knockout tournament will begin. Moreover, all places from first to eighth will be up for grabs. In addition to the decisive race, the so-called finals “B”, “C” and “D” will take place. During the December World Cup pursit at the Olympic oval, which can be considered a dress rehearsal before the Games, Ekaterina Lobysheva, Galina Likhacheva and Ekaterina Abramova took fourth place. They missed out on Germany, Canada and Japan (the teams finished in exactly the same order at the 2005 World Cup).
Following the results of the Italian stage and the two previous ones in Calgary (Canada) and Heerenveen (Holland), the Russians came third in the cup standings. The Germans took the lead, winning two races. Another success came to Holland. By the way, the speed skaters of this country hold the world champion title in the men's discipline. Ivan Skobrev, Anatoly Krasheninin and Dmitry Shepel showed only the 11th result in Turin, although in fairness it should be noted that some countries posted two triples. Russia was awarded cup points for ninth place, as they were ahead of Germany-2 and Japan-2, who competed outside the standings.
This season, Canada, Japan and Holland have one victory each, and the “orange” did not participate in Turin. The practice of international starts has shown that the optimal number for us is three, when Evgeniy Lalenkov is added to the company with Shepel and Skobrev. With this lineup, they were close to becoming winners twice.
To the finish line on the board
Snowboard cross can be somewhat compared to downhill skiing or super-G with a significant difference - here four athletes rush to the finish line at a time. It's spectacular and visual. If this event had debuted at the Olympics four years ago in Salt Lake City, Russia might have won a medal. At that time, Maria Tikhvinskaya, who has now completed her career, was in the prime of her sports form. In 1999, she became the silver medalist of the world championship, four times, including the 2002 Olympic winter, she was in the top three at the World Cup stages. Now Russians are not competitive in this event. The leaders of the national team, Ekaterina Tudigesheva and Svetlana Boldykova, are focused on slalom disciplines. The latter entered the elite last winter, taking second place in the parallel giant slalom at the World Championships. So in Turin Svetlana can be considered a contender for the award, but not in snowboard cross.
The “crossers” had eight cup stages each, and no one was able to win twice. Among the girls, three French women, two Swiss women, and one representative each from Canada, Austria and the USA took the lead. For men, the Americans, Canadians, and Austrians each had two victories; a Frenchman and an Italian climbed to the highest step of the podium once more. The best of the Russians, Andrei Boldykov, did not rise above 20th place. The rules of the competition are as follows: first, two qualifying attempts are carried out, and the time of the best one is counted. Those who qualify for the playoffs start in fours, and two athletes from each quartet advance to the next round.
Lean towards the crowd
For skiers, pursuit races (5+5 km classic and freestyle for women, 10+10 km for men) and middle-distance skating mass starts - 15 km and 30 km, respectively - are excluded from the games program. Their place was taken by double pursites - 7.5+7.5 km and 15+15 km. That is, now there will be no pause between two races: skiers, after completing the first half of the distance in one style from the mass start, change skis and poles in a specially designated area and continue moving towards the finish. The last double-pursits before the Olympics were won by Becky Scott and Tobias Angerer, and at the previous stage the Canadian became second, and the German won, that is, he is the undisputed leader of the season in this event. Yulia Chepalova has a good chance of winning the award.
Marathon races (50 km for men and 30 km for women) have changed their format. Instead of a tedious and inconvenient time trial race for spectators, the “classic” at the Winter Games will be a skating mass start. It was in this form that the marathon was last held two years ago at the stage in Oslo, and it brought victory to Chepalova and the German Rene Sommerfeld.
Olympic debutant - team sprint. Each of the two participants, passing the baton to a partner after each 1.2 km lap, completes three such segments. The Norwegians, Germans and Swedes are strong here, but the Russians are not going to be extras either. Ilya TRISVIATSKY |
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